Connor leads US Team to dominate the women's Skeet event: four medals, a new record

52nd ISSF World Championship All Events · Changwon, KOR

Caitlin Connor led the US team to a stunning victory in the Skeet event, today. After winning seven ISSF silver medal, she finally claimed a gold, and she did in a great day for her team.

USA’s dominance over the women’s Skeet event continues also at this year’s ISSF World Championship in Changwon.

Caitlin Connor, Kimberly Rhode and Amber English won gold, silver and bronze, today, securing two Tokyo 2020 Olympic quota places (each team can secure a maximum of two quotas in one event).

Connor’s title is the fourth consecutive World Championship women’s Skeet title won in a row by an US athlete. Brandy Drodz had secured it in 2014, Morgan Craf in 2015, and Dania Jo Vizzi in 2017. Moreover, it’s the the fifth title out of the last seven world championships awarded to USA, since 2010.

The dominance of the US team was after all very clear throughout the whole 2018 season. Olympic legend Kimberly Rhode won 3 out of 4 ISSF world cup stages, and US shooters claimed 7 of the 12 medals up for grabs.

Today’s turned out to be the first ISSF gold medal ever won by Connor. The 27-year-old athlete had finished in second at the 2015 ISSF World Championship in Lonato, and she has collected an impressive number of second places throughout the last ten years: 6 different ISSF World Cup silver medals shine in her trophy showcase.

Connor battled right to the last shot, today, to win the title. She shot a perfect match right to the 34th target. Only then she missed a couple of targets, and then again one more clay on the following station.

After the 40th clay, with 20 clays to go to the end of the match, only three shooter were left in the match: the three American teammates, all tied at 37 hits.

On the following stations, Amber English was the first to miss, and was eliminated taking the third place with a score of 46 hits. Six-time Olympic medalist Rhode and Connor shot tied right to the last station of the final, when Rhode missed her second last clay, pocketing silver with 56 hits, leaving the gold to Connor with 57

Connor said:

“Today’s final was very exciting. I was a little nervous at first, but then I got into the groove and had fun shooting with my teammates.”

“It feels really good to have three US flags up there. I am glad it was us three. It’s a great day for USA.”

“I missed two targets, I had a very bad mount,” she added, commenting on the most difficult moment of her match. “But that didn’t scare me too much, I knew exactly what I did. I just tried to focus on what I was doing and to move on.”

“I had a little bit of pressure on the last station. But I knew I had broken that pair of targets a thousand times, so I just tried to be smooth and hit them.“

In a single match, the US team secured both the 2020 Olympic quota placed available for them. But that doesn’t guarantee that who won the quota will be representing America at the next Games.

“Today’s competition was a big deal for our Olympic selections,” the new world champion said. “The two of us that did won the Olympic quotas here will get extra points for our selection process, so it definitely helps me in securing the main goal.”

“I would like to dedicate this title to my parents. Without them I wouldn’t be here!” Concluded an emotional Connor.

The third and fourth quota places up for grabs at today’s final went to Slovakia’s Danka Bartekova, who placed fourth with 36 hits, and to Russia’s Natalia Vinogradova, fifth with 26 hits.

Cyprus’ Andri Eleftherious closed the final in sixth place, with a tally of 14 clays.

In the Team Even (where the ranking is calculated by summing up the qualification scores of the three team members of each nations), the combined efforts of Connor, Rhode and English lifted USA atop of the podium, with a new world record score of 355 hits.

The Italian team, led by Olympic Champions Diana Bacosi and Chiara Cainero, along with their teammate Katiuscia Spada, collected the silver medal with 347 points, while Cyprus (Eleftheriou, Kostantia Nikolaou and Panagiota Andreu) begged bronze with 345 hits.